That proposal involves involves levying a $32 monthly household fee on parish residents for the next four months to pay for the parish fire department. Then, on the Dec. 8 ballot, parish voters would decide whether they prefer to replace that $32 monthly fee with a 20-mill property tax, which would add about $90 to the annual tax bill -- or about $7.50 a month -- of a $120,000 home that qualifies for homestead exemption.

The proposal likely will be introduced by the Parish Council next week at its 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting. It would replace the ordinance introduced by the council last week that instead proposed adding a $27.51 monthly fee per residence for the foreseeable future.

After the Executive Finance Committee ended on Tuesday evening, several councilmen also proposed the idea of placing a separate measure on the Dec. 8 ballot that would allow residents to vote on an additional monthly fee for other parish services, such as community development, recreation, public works, mosquito control, road lighting and sanitation. At the town hall meeting tonight, McInnis is expected to further discuss ideas for that second December ballot fee proposal.

The 20-mill assessment would only bring in about $5.7 million annually, leaving the parish well shy of next year's projected $10.2 million deficit. While councilmen on Tuesday already proposed ideas for about $1.7 million in additional non-personnel cuts, they and Peralta vowed to continue looking for further operational savings that would not results in layoffs.

Under the previously introduced $27.51 fee that would have generated about $5 million annually, the parish government had estimated it still would have had to lay off another 92 parish employees to balance the budget.

Already this year, 94 parish employees have resigned, retired or were fired. The parish hired 37 new employees, so all and all it has lost about 60 staff members and saved the parish about $1.6 million a year.